


all these tastes improve

by Lint



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 05:06:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14181396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lint/pseuds/Lint
Summary: If you want some kind of an explanation, I don't have one. I just... Want her. Okay? Not for any real reason. I just do.





	all these tastes improve

Cheryl likes to wake her with kisses.

 

One on the right cheek, then one on the left, before pausing in the middle to claim Toni's lips with her own.

 

To be honest, it's kind of a surprise. That someone with such a high maintenance beauty regimen like Cheryl, wouldn't be concerned with something such a morning breath. Not that Toni complains. It's certainly a better way to wake up in the morning than the annoying alarm tone she chose on her phone. Or that one time Fangs dumped a bucket of water on her head at a Serpents camp out. Or Sweet Pea grabbing her by the shoulder and giving a shake.

 

She always smells of maple syrup. Whether it's by choice or just in her blood, Toni doesn't know, but kissing Cheryl Blossom immediately makes her crave pancakes. Something that actually makes the redhead laugh, before those pale limbs wrap around her and they lose all motivation to actually leave the bed.

 

“I hoped it would be like this,” Cheryl says softly.

 

“Like what?”

 

“Simple,” she answers. “That I can wake up next to you. Kiss you and-”

 

Toni's head tilts, curious.

 

“And what?”

 

“Know you want me.”

 

Cheryl's eyes look elsewhere after the words, but Toni's hand caresses her cheek, pulling attention back to her.

 

“I do,” Toni assures. “Want you.”

 

Cheryl's smile is slow, pulling at her mouth in a deliberate way.

 

“Want you,” Toni repeats, pulling her closer again. “Need you.”

 

One soft little kiss.

 

“Crave you.”

 

Something shines in Cheryl's eyes at her own words being used back at her, and then they're kissing again, with such hungry desperation it almost feels impossible to breathe. Maple syrup, Toni thinks. Honeysuckle and rose petals. Her girl gives such sickly sweet elation the rest of her senses don't know how to process them. But it never gives her pause. Never wants to make her slow or stop completely. To always covet whatever she may get, and be forever grateful to receive.

 

Cheryl Blossom continually makes her heart go pitter-pat, and she doesn't have a single explanation as to why.

 

/\

 

The first time Toni takes Cheryl to the Whyte Wyrm, it feels like she has dressed up for a costume party. Skintight red leather pants, clashed against a black leather jacket, with a see through top that easily could have been taken from Toni's own closet. (Probably was.) Her interpretation of what biker chic is, and looking so hot, Toni found no objections to voice.

 

They get a few looks entering the bar, ranging from inquisitive to dismissive, depending on who previously knew of her existence or not. Some focus on the fact that their hands hold onto each other, or Cheryl's choice of dress, the rest just nodding informal hello's in Toni's direction.

 

Cheryl orders a gin and tonic, and Toni goes for straight whiskey, guiding her girl over to the pool table and dropping down a quarter for next game. The redhead has no feel for the game at first, scratching the cue ball more than once, but catches on quicker than Toni's ever seen. Sinking her final three shots in quick succession.

 

“Do I get a prize?” she teases.

 

Toni indulges her with a kiss, before excusing herself to the bathroom, but only after Cheryl assures that she can stand on her own for a few minutes.

 

“Are you kidding me?” Sweet Pea exclaims, grabbing her elbow once she's exited the ladies', and spinning her to face him. “It's bad enough with Jughead dating miss fairy princess of the Northside, but now you bring Queen Bitch into our club?”

 

“Okay first,” Toni retorts, pulling her arm free and socking his. “Don't ever call her that. Second? Get used to it. She's with me now, so you're going to be seeing a lot more of her.”

 

Sweet Pea just glares in response.

 

“This is not going to end well for you,” he says after a moment.

 

“Is that a threat?”

 

Sweet Pea tilts his head back in frustration.

 

“A threat?” he repeats. “Come on, T. You should know better than that. Just like you should know better than to date someone who will drop you the second things get too rough. Or complicated. Like everything coming in this war.”

 

Toni can't help to look back at Cheryl, still standing by the pool table.

 

“You really think when push comes to shove,” Sweet Pea goes on. “When it's us versus them, she's really going to pick you?”

 

“Maybe,” Toni concedes. “Maybe not. But that's my choice to make. My consequences to deal with.”

 

Sweet Pea still isn't convinced.

 

“Yeah? What do the two of you talk about then? What could you possibly have in common? And don't feed me some Romeo and Juliet crap, that's Jones' excuse.”

 

Because she's broken, Toni doesn't say. Just like I am. Just like I've always been. In a way no one in the Serpents is ever going to see. Or care about if they do. She gets me. Like I get her. No words are ever going to explain it in a way that's going to convince you otherwise.

 

“You don't have to understand,” Toni says instead. “Hell, I don't expect you to. But it's happening, Sweet Pea. If you want some kind of an explanation, I don't have one. I just... Want her. Okay? Not for any real reason. I just do.”

 

Sweet Pea shakes his head.

 

“Fine,” he accepts begrudgingly. “Whatever. Just don't come crying to me when she breaks your heart.”

 

/\

 

Cheryl gives affection in much the same way as she accepts it.

 

Like she's starved for it.

 

As if she's imagined her entire life what it's supposed to feel like and finally gets the chance to indulge herself in all its wonderful eccentricities. She's constantly reaching for Toni's hand. Putting an arm around her waist. Toying with the ends of her hair, or clasping hands over the top of her wrists. And the kissing, god, there's so much of it their first few days together Cheryl makes some offhand comment about having to reapply her lipstick a dozen times a day. That and Toni has taken to keeping more than one tube of Chapstick in her bag at all times.

 

Funny thing is, everyone looks at Cheryl to see some kind of accomplishment off their coupling. That she and she alone is finally free from the shackles of an abusive upbringing, to be happy and out, with a girlfriend who accepts her completely. No one even glances at Toni and realizes that she too, has never had much of a home life to speak of. That she joined a biker gang for nothing other than survival. Or despite being honest and open about her sexuality since the day she realized where she stood, has never had a stable relationship of her own.

 

Toni is not bothered by such things. The spotlight shines where it wants to, and dating the radiant beacon that is Cheryl Blossom, definitely comes with a shadow cast.

 

/\

 

The strangest thing to come out of her relationship with Cheryl, just might be a burgeoning friendship with Veronica Lodge, despite her father's attempt to destroy the Southside. Forged in fire as sisters in arms against the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, saving their Queen from a dank, dark dungeon of homophobia. There's a respect Toni feels for the girl. Something admirable about standing your ground no matter where your feet are planted.

 

They walk alongside each other through the hall, heading toward Geometry, and Veronica is full of questions.

 

“I am dying to know,” she states, books held on the crook of her arm, an inquisitive eyebrow lifted toward the ceiling. “What's it like?”

 

For a moment Toni's confused as to what she's asking.

 

“What is what like?”

 

“Dating Cheryl.”

 

Something in her voice is telling, that the question is a little more than mere curiosity. Maybe she's wondered the same thing for herself, somewhere along the way, but the circumstances never brought anything more than an idle thought to the forefront.

 

“Oddly wonderful,” Toni replies with a grin.

 

The answer surprises Veronica, though she's quick to mask her reaction.

 

“Not what you were expecting to hear?”

 

The brunette chuckles self consciously.

 

“Yes and no,” she explains. “I mean, of course it's going well. Anyone with a pair of eyes can see that. I guess I just, I don't know, expected drama because-”

 

“It's Cheryl?”

 

Veronica nods.

 

“Well, there's that.” Toni allows. “And yeah, the Serpents are none to happy about another one of theirs dating a Northsider. Especially one as harsh a critic as Cheryl was. But I'm being selfish, and putting me first for once.”

 

“Girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do.”

 

Toni grins.

 

“Exactly.”

 

/\

 

Cheryl's fingers play idly with the buttons on the front of Toni's shirt, her fingers slipping between the fabric, talon like nails teasing the skin underneath. She pushes, ever so slightly, toward the bed where the mattress makes contact with the back of Toni's knees.

 

The button pops open, as both their eyes meet, and Cheryl hesitates only a second before going for the one beneath. Followed by the next one, and the one after that. Toni's lip catches between her teeth when Cheryl's hands tuck under the fabric, palms flush against bare skin, before Cheryl claims that mouth with her own.

 

Her hands move up to Toni's shoulders, pushing the shirt away from them, and shifts her mouth to tease along a suddenly bare collarbone. It's slow, the process of undress, and isn't anything like she ever expected. It's not wild. Not hungry. Cheryl appears to be in no rush, despite all their experience to the contrary.

 

Her touch is gentle, exploring the length of Toni's arms, before the meeting of hands and entwining of their fingers. One little squeeze before she's off exploring again, fingernails tracing up from her bellybutton, skin flinching with the tease. All the way up her chest, to her neck and across her jaw, until finally those hands cup Toni's face and pulls them into another kiss.

 

Toni's heart beats so hard against her chest, she's sure Cheryl can hear, and must be why the redhead drops her ear toward it. Proud of her handiwork.

 

“It's okay,” Toni finds herself saying. “If you want to stop. We... We don't have to-”

 

“Stop?” Cheryl questions. “Why would I ever want to do that?”

 

I don't know, Toni doesn't say. God, please don't.

 

There's a wicked gleam in Cheryl's eye when she lifts her head again, one that makes Toni gasp in anticipation, those fingers reaching toward the clasp on the front of her bra. The hesitation is almost a question, one answered with a single nod, and when the garment is dropped to the floor Cheryl is not shy about pushing Toni onto the bed.

 

Toni gasps underneath her. Short shaky breaths spreading across her shoulder like the web of a spider, nails scratching a path along Cheryl's back, mapping their short odyssey to this moment. Cheryl nips at the skin between Toni's neck and shoulder, her teeth sending already electrified nerves into overload, as her hands work some kind of magic on the space between her legs.

 

How did they get here? Toni wonders. She doesn't even remember getting the rest of her clothes off after her bra hit the floor, let alone Cheryl's, whose rhythm increases to the point where Toni just might lose the next few minutes of memory again.

 

She screams an expletive into Cheryl's ear, the redhead taunting her about such foul language, and threatening to stop. Toni promises to be good, which just makes Cheryl work faster, and takes what little breath she has left away.

 

So close now, she can feel the wave cresting to its peak, pulling Cheryl down for a kiss as it finally crashes to keep herself from unleashing a streak of cursing that would no doubt leave her primed for some kind of reprimand.

 

Cheryl collapses on top of her, as Toni's fingers retrace the map she made across the skin of her back, and they kiss and kiss and kiss. Only when oxygen becomes an issue, do they part to catch their breath, rolling onto their side but remain facing each other.

 

“Cheryl,” Toni says softly. “Baby.”

 

She smiles at the term of endearment.

 

“You know once I get my breath back, it's your turn.”

 

Cheryl doesn't reply, biting her bottom lip instead, eyes fluttering closed when Toni's hand caresses her cheek. They don't say the words now, because honestly, it's too soon to mean them. But the possibility floats unspoken in the air between their lips.

 

(Between their hearts.)

 

 

 


End file.
